A Journey to Paradise
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The book a Journey to Paradise is a brainchild for Michael Bagampangye. It centres on the author as he was growing up as a young man from Uganda a small East African Country. The plot of the story is set over about thirty years a time he went through on a journey to self-discovery as a individual. It then covers his time in the United Kingdom, somewhere he lived from the age of twenty-five. This is about some circumstances around his growing period with topics such as bullying, growing away from his parents, his caring grandmother, and teenage rebellion among many other things. The novel talks about how he tried to motivate himself and people around him judging by his personal experience as he searched for the ever-elusive paradise. This in addition to and about his various positions of leadership from school and as a head of his family is all taken care of in the novel. With over ten years experience in the media and working with the National Health Service in the United Kingdom as a Peer Experience Listener, the novel highlights cultural differences, love won and love lost, missing home, loneliness, broken relationships, poor choices, mental illness, and sex or the lack of it among many other situations. The yearning and searching for paradise occupies centre stage in the novel as he is constantly reminded that he is searching for something nice and probably unobtainable. The thought process in some of the monologues and dialogues highlight the yearning that drives the writer to high levels of passion as highlighted in the Novel. The relationship between his life in Uganda and the United Kingdom is juxtaposed laying foundation for his growing from the Youngman to becoming a man in his own right (The Man). Differences in infrastructure between the UK and Uganda are highlighted in the novel with the protagonist talking about his life and how he dreamt of his future in paradise something he related to life as he grew older. In the end, he realised that even the Europe he assumes to be paradises was not as he dreamt, this left him thinking about holiday destinations which too never seemed to be the paradise he dreamt of. Maybe he will get to it but as he says, that is a story for another day. Family relations are tackled in the novel where he talks about his being at loggerheads with one of his uncles something that made him dislike calling that uncle his dad yet he had his own dad although not living with his dad at the time. Talk about sweating the small stuff. Childhood memories do take centre stage in his writing. In the book, he talks about toys by his standards something that was completely different from the kind of toys used by children from the western world. Searching for Utopia continues to be a theme in his writing and at some stage he realised there was something wrong. Here he realised his dream could take more than he realised it would. This was something that got him more determined in his search. Obtaining his dream was always playing in his mind and he was determined to get to it. Just in case, I will let you know, a Journey to Paradise is a worthwhile read.
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About the Book
A Journey to Paradise is about the author’s experiences as he grew up in Uganda and later moved to the United Kingdom. It tells of the usual antagonisms—like poverty, conflict, and mental illness—and it compares the infrastructure of Uganda with the United Kingdom. It talks of intrigue, competition, personal misunderstanding, determination and perseverance, self-discovery, travel, broken relationships, misunderstandings, yearnings, and sexual encounters. It is a journey from childhood to adulthood. This no-holds-barred book is partially about the author’s life and experiences in different parts of the world, his struggle with mental illness, his attempt to rediscover himself as an individual, and his settling in two contradicting worlds: Africa and Europe. This semiautobiographical piece of writing tries to describe all aspects and conflicts of growing up and the perspective of an individual who has lived a rather intriguing life but still yearns for more, just like any other human being. A Journey to Paradise tackles all these issues in a no-holds-barred perspective. It highlights the positives and tries to find solutions for the issues that are negative in nature. The book is divided into three parts. It starts with the author as a young man and progresses as he is a mysterious teenager and young adult and later as an adult. In the end, the author presents advice about the development of the individual, with a few quotes meant for motivating both the writer and those who read the book. This can be a page-turner if you are passionate about self-development and fighting intrigue as expressed in writing. A Journey to Paradise is a book for you.
About the Author
Michael Senteza Bagampangye was born in Kampala, the capital city of the east African country of Uganda. He lived in Kampala and Mbarara, a southwestern district, where he studied from primary school to his secondary school at Mbarara High School, a famous missionary boys’ school, after which he moved to Kampala at sixteen years of age. He lived in Kampala up to when he was twenty-five years of age. Then he moved to England for a holiday trip, which turned out to be a permanent change of residence. He was interested in writing from an early age and always hoped to become a published writer. For years, the thought of that desired paradise was lurking at the back of his mind. To improve his writing skills, he went to London Metropolitan University, where he graduated with honors with a joint degree in mass communications (journalism) and English literature. After graduation and jobs in the commercial field, a hospital, and student radio, he turned back to his passion—writing. This is his first novel, and he looks forward to writing more and establishing himself as a writer of quality and renown, something that he is passionate about. He now invites you to follow him on this precarious journey in search of that elusive paradise.